It has long been established that unprotected boat hulls, when left submerged for periods of time in a body of water, are susceptible to damage through fouling by various marine organisms. A number of inventions have been devised to reduce this damage. For example, many types of permanent hull coatings have been used that act as a physical barrier between a boat's hull and the water immediately surrounding it. Such coatings, however, typically do not protect the hull from the accumulation of barnacles and algae. In some cases, such coatings also reduce performance of the vessel due to the weight of the coatings. Other coatings use a toxic substance to retard fouling by marine life, but significant environmental drawbacks exist with the use of such toxic coatings, and, consequently, such coatings are becoming less practical.
Other devices are available that serve to protect a boat hull only while the boat is at rest, since marine life is not able to afflict damage to the boat's hull when the boat is moving. As such, these types of devices have generally taken the form of stationary, submergible enclosures that are caused to engage a boat's hull after the boat has entered its mooring. Typically, such devices will form an opaque shroud around the submerged portions of the boat's hull to form an enclosure. The opaque shroud prevents sunlight from entering the water between the shroud and the hull, thus limiting organism growth and thereby reducing its damaging effects. Toxic additives are used to kill marine life within the enclosure. Yet another approached is to pump fresh water into the enclosure, thereby killing any marine life that depends upon sea water to survive. All of these enclosure devices have a common drawback in that they are extremely difficult to operate and maintain, often requiring a person to enter the water surrounding the vessel to secure the enclosure to the hull of the boat. Such enclosure devices typically provide a variety of pumps and operating equipment, complicated dock-side attachment means, and complex guide means for the enclosure. Not only does the complexity of such devices make installation relatively difficult, but it affects the ease with which such devices are operated and maintained. As such, widespread use of enclosure devices has not been developed.
Thus, there is a clear need for a hull protection device that significantly reduces the fouling marine life damage of boat hulls and that is also relatively simple to install, operate, and maintain. Such a needed device should be capable of adaptation to a variety of boat hulls, environmentally acceptable, and relatively inexpensive. The present invention fulfills these needs and provides further related advantages.